Yes, Dai qualified by winning the KinKi Regionals.
Apparently the Kikuchi-san officially retiring thing was published in a publication that was also responsible for some not-so-nice gossip about Yuzuru (though I haven't seen it in print nor can I find it on their website, only screencaps of the words themselves shared privately). JFans don't really want to give the publication clicks which is why the news isn't spreading around Twitter. I haven't seen it substantiated by any other source, though I don't actually doubt the fact he's retired (it would explain his absence this season). But just letting people know it hasn't been 'officially' announced by any other news source.

Hello, uhh...I recently joined and mainly made an account to msg this to you, but I really appreciated your translations of yuzu’s quotes and they personally really helped me, so I wanted to know if you are going to continue to do them, or you won’t be doing them anymore? Whatever it’s your choice, and no pressure but I really wanted to thank you for taking your time to do them for us.

Hello - I'm really glad they helped you! I did this project mostly as a lead-up to Olympics and I'm now focused mostly on translating yuzu news on twitter as they arise (@axelsandwich) and I'm working on another translation project on a longer term basis, but I will keep this in mind and update when I can - it's not a hard 'this project is closed' situation but I just don't have the time to commit to it on a regular basis. I will try and do some more though, there's a lot more wisdom for Yuzu to share ( :

Aw thank you! I'm glad the transcripts help, we really work hard on them and transcribe from scratch but I personally think it pays off because I also prefer reading to listening most days. I'm hoping that we can cover some wider, themed topics once competition wraps up too. We also have a more general news roundup in case anyone has trouble keeping up with the FS world (it's mostly for me because...I have trouble keeping up with the FS world)

A really really acute and salient point about commentary - I think being able to go in depth by naming specific transitions or elements also reflects a deeper technical understanding of the sport and I definitely prefer it to yet another comment about the Pooh rain - which incidentally never offers much new beyond 'oh wow that's a lot of Poohs' like...yes, very insightful........
You may also enjoy Max and Angelo's podcast series - generously translated by fans - where they really go in depth about skating technicals and discuss a bunch of topics. I don't take their word as absolute law but I appreciate that they 'show their working out', so to speak, so that they are transparent about how they got to their conclusions and leave room for people to challenge or contradict them.

omg my people
My photos from ACI and Milan are here and here respectively - I shoot with a Canon 5D Mk 2 as an advanced amateur (I've shot paid weddings/fashion/portrait shoots). Biggest challenge with sports photography is...lenses. I shot all the competitions with a 24-105mm but I could see how huge of a difference a 200mm/300mm made to just the sheer range of shots people could get...and was so jealous ; u ; (whether I want to drop $$$ on buying or hiring one for an uncertain number of competitions is another thing...). I also shot video but decided to go with manual focus rather than try and figure out my autotracking. I didn't really want to spend my whole time looking at Yuzu and other skaters through my camera screen though, which is why my videos and fancams ended up being quite scattered and short -- I'll leave HQ fancams to the professionals (I prefer photos anyway).
Workflow-wise, my friends used a CF card reader for their phones to great effect - good for people trying to edit live! https://www.ebay.com.au/p/3in1-Lightning-to-SD-CF-TF-Card-Camera-Reader-Adapter-for-iPhone-X-8-iPad-Ios11/28021355125?iid=153095105526&amp;chn=ps
Even moreso than CF cards (my 64GB was enough to last me a whole day shooting full RAW and some video though I had to backup and format my card every day), spare batteries are the things to invest in. I'm lucky I had one - it meant I could shoot without fear.
Here's a thread of my photos ( :

It certainly is a no-no but the sad reality is that even if it's technically illegal or in bad faith re: business, nothing will happen if no one brings an action against them and they're simply not going to. By virtue of #hanyuconomy, it's probably going to sell anyway but that's why I'm extremely side-eye-y about how exploitative this all feels on TSL's side, given how they've disparaged him in the past. It's unfortunate the collaboration is with someone like Aljona's husband - friends of mine have bought his limited edition yuzu prints and they're beautiful pieces but I'd much rather buy from him directly =______=

I used to barely understand how GOEs work but now I really don't understand. It's incredible that there isn't a mechanism for holding judges accountable. There should NOT be allowed to be a 5pt difference in GOEs awarded for the same jump, something is so wrong there